Belmar Mayor Matt Doherty has been accused of fraud, tortious interference, breach of contract and breach of covenant in suit filed against Doherty personally and the Borough of Belmar by the landlord of Salt, the Harmon Brothers’ establishment whose liquor license transfer was denied by the Borough last Spring.

The suit filed by William Wolf of Bathgate, Wegener and Wolf on behalf a Loko Co, LLC, a development company owned by Gregory Kapalko, alleges that Doherty urged Kapalko to suspend the permitting applications with the NJ DEP for the construction of the waterfront property that Loko has an agreement with the Borough to redevelop and instead enter into a Joint Venture with Ollie Klein, the owner of Klein’s Fish Market, and Stephen and Mark Coleman, Florida based real estate investors. Doherty promised that the Borough would extend the schedule of the Redevelopment Agreement if Klein and the Colemans were involved in the project, according to the suit. Loko complied with Doherty’s suggestion and he reneged on the deal to extend the Redevelopment Agreement.